The Securities and Exchange Commission gave a few more details on its Oct. 8 roundtable to gather input from stakeholders on ways to revamp its disclosure system to improve the information given to investors, the market, and the agency itself.

The half-day roundtable is part of the SEC’s 21st Century Disclosure Initiative, unveiled by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in June. The event will be organized into two panels. One will explore the data, technology, and processes that companies and other filers use in satisfying their SEC disclosure obligations and will consider the data and technology that investors use in making their investment decisions. The other will consider “how the SEC could better organize and operate its disclosure system so that companies enjoy efficiencies and investors have better access to high-quality information,” according to the SEC.

Panelists will include investor representatives, company officials, information intermediaries, practitioners, and academics. The event will be held at the SEC’s Washington D.C. headquarters, and there will be a Webcast: www.sec.gov.

Dr. William Lutz, who is heading up the initiative, says the roundtable discussion will help advise the Commission on “how to build on and accelerate its transition from the current forms-based system of collecting data to a system that is more dynamic, more accessible and user-friendly, and better organized around core company or fund information.”

The strategic plan calls for Lutz and his staff to prepare a report by year-end to help the SEC transition to such a system. The SEC will be asked in early 2009 to establish a Federal Advisory Committee to review the plan and make recommendations to the Commission for implementing it.

The 21st Century initiative ties in with the SEC’s plan to phase out its EDGAR database for a new disclosure system, dubbed IDEA, for Interactive Data Electronic Applications.